The present invention relates generally to information acquisition, management and display in computer systems, and more particularly, to a computer program product, method and system for managing and displaying utility programs, user-defined data and digital communications network-accessible information on a personal computer device.
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of this patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent prosecution file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
As the accessibility, amount and exchange of digital information increases, individuals are increasingly motivated to use various computer software applications to assist in the daily planning and management of information critical to their personal and business activities. Because this information may manifest itself in a wide range and diversity of forms and may be produced by software applications resident on an individual""s computer or be received from multiple and remote sources via Local and Wide Area Network (LAN/WAN) communication links or the Internet, there is a need for an information management tool for personal computer systems that can integrate and simplify the tasks of data acquisition, management and presentation of a variety of diverse types of information acquired from a variety of different information sources.
Although various commercial utility programs are available for use on a PC (personal computer) or other computer device to manage individual components and/or subsets of personal and business information, the computer-user must typically activate separate software applications to obtain access to different types of data. Moreover, many conventional commercial software applications are designed for managing information pertaining solely to a business or corporate operations, while other applications are designed solely for managing personal information. This situation presents a problem in that the user must routinely reactivate each individual software utility application each time access or display of particular information is desired. In addition, one may be required to individually activate and switch between using separate software applications for accessing e-mail, scheduling appointments, making personal task lists, and accessing internet World Wide Web-sites, etc. Moreover, as an added inconvenience, the computer-user must maintain a relatively high degree of familiarity with the operation of a multiplicity of different computer programs.
Another problem with conventional information management programs is that whenever one desires to assemble and/or update specific items of information, one is typically required to search, track, acquire and assemble the information for display manually. Often during this acquisition and tracking process, important information is lost or forgotten in the process of sorting through the volume of other less relevant information. Consequently, it would be desirable to have a software application for managing a wide range of both personal and business information, such as e-mail, scheduling and appointment data, personal task and xe2x80x9cto-doxe2x80x9d list data, spread-sheet data, Internet web-site content, conventional text and graphical file data, that would provide users with an automatic tool for acquiring, organizing and displaying selected information in a convenient and automatic manner that facilitates viewing for learning, memorization and general utilization. Along the same lines, it would also be desirable to have a single information-management utility for a personal computer device that provided some convenient means for facilitating the learning and memorization of selected information items and/or provided means for reminding the computer-user of selected information items at predetermined times or intervals. The present invention addresses these and other problems inherent to computerized personal information management by providing a system and method for routinely and automatically acquiring and displaying information from multiple selected digital information sources in a manner that enhances the efficiency and ability of a computer-user to effectively view, utilize, study and remember the selected information.
In one aspect, the present invention is a computer program product and software utility application, suitable for execution on a variety of computer systems having a user I/O interface and display device, that operates as a xe2x80x9cscreen saverxe2x80x9d type application that allows a user to integrate and display a variety of different types of information acquired from a variety of local and remote sources such as, for example, e-mail, personal appointment reminder and calendar applications, task-scheduling applications and other conventional software utility programs. In another aspect, the present invention is a computer system and method for automatically acquiring and displaying information obtained from local and remote data sources, including both local files or other resident software utility applications and remote computers or servers connected to the computer system via LAN/WAN or other digital data communications links.
In accordance with the present invention, an information management system is provided as a software utility program embodied in a computer-readable medium for loading and executing on a computer system having an associated display device or other computer device having a display (e.g., a PDA, laptop, etc.). Once the information management system software is executed on a host computer, a database is created to store set-up instructional information and data acquired from various user-selected information sources. The information contained in the database may also be updated at pre-selected intervals by an automatic accessing of the appropriate information sources without the need for subsequent user interaction. In an initial mode of operation, set-up menus are provided on the display device in bit-mapped graphics windows for selecting the information sources for acquiring data, inputting various properties concerning the selected information sources and selecting display characteristics. Using the set-up menus, the host computer user can select specific xe2x80x9cfilterxe2x80x9d characteristics to be applied to each type or source of acquired information and display characteristics for displaying the information. These filter characteristics include data selection and display information for determining, for example, the file location or source of data to acquire and display, file or source names, font type, size and color for displaying text, background page color, display frequency or cycle and duration, etc. Thereafter, the system operates in a xe2x80x9cscreen saverxe2x80x9d mode wherein selected information stored locally or contained in the database is sequentially displayed, for example, in a bit-mapped graphics window after the computer has been idle for a predetermined period. In addition, the user can immediately deactivate the xe2x80x9cscreen saverxe2x80x9d mode and activate a desired software program via, for example, a simple keyboard command or xe2x80x9cmousexe2x80x9d operation.
One advantage of the present invention is that it operates as a automatic visual reminder to the user of a computer device to perform various tasks, such as reading e-mail and editing appointment or xe2x80x9cto doxe2x80x9d lists, and provides a convenient vehicle for performing such tasks. An additional advantage is that information from various sources can be combined together for viewing on a single display xe2x80x9cpagexe2x80x9d or sequentially on a plurality of display pages. For example, using the present invention, appointment data from resident software program (i.e., a program stored on the user""s computer system) can be combined with appointment data obtained from a content residing remotely at a particular Internet site. Another advantage of the present invention is that it can be used to enhance the performance of corporate or other organizational teams of individuals through the use of common screen displays and the sharing of operational and performance data among team members via a LAN or WAN communications link. For example, using the present invention, team performance metrics and accomplishments can be displayed uniformly and routinely to all team members without the need for team members to each individually access multiple data files or programs. Moreover, information can be easily updated from a central location and distributed to all team members via Local/Wide Area Networks or the Internet. In addition, information compiled by different utility programs can be selected so that information from each program can be displayed on a single page. For example, multiple e-mail programs can be identified and information from multiple programs can be displayed on a single or sequential display page(s). In this way, a user can monitor e-mail from various sources without having to activate separate e-mail programs.
Another advantage of the present invention provides a means for enhancing a person""s ability to memorize selected information through the repeated displaying of selected user-defined data. For example, information acquired from pre-selected sources and files or information created and stored locally in a user-created file may be repeatedly displayed at predetermined selected intervals. A further feature of the present invention provides for the automatic accessing of selected Internet sites and for the retrieving and displaying of selected information content provided by those sites. A display of selected Internet sites and URL addresses is provided during a set-up process or the user can direct the system to immediately access a desired Internet site by a simple keyboard or mouse command. Additionally, Internet content can be automatically xe2x80x9cpulledxe2x80x9d from a site provider at predetermined times and then stored in a local database for later display. For example, once the appropriate set-up selection information has been entered, Internet web-site content and updates, such as confirmation of on-line travel reservations, results of bids submitted on Internet auction sites, etc., can be automatically acquired on a routine basis and repetitively displayed without further action by the user.